Women's Volleyball Battles Hard at Spikefest

In what was one of the strongest fields in recent memory for the Lady Eagles annual Spikefest tournament, Faith battled hard but came up short, finishing 6th overall. The weekend puts the Eagles overall mark at 3-4, but the strong showing should give confidence to a young Eagle's team who competed in every match. Faith pushed defending national champion Kentucky Christian and defending regional champion Providence University College to the brink, falling in game five in both sets after having chances to win in both matches. Faith defeated Cottey College on Saturday, also in five games, then simply ran out of gas against Hillsdale Free Will Baptist for the sixth place finish.

In their first game of the tournament, Faith faced off against Kentucky Christian. Faith started hot, jumping out to a quick lead then holding off runs by KCU for a 25-20 win. Game two was a repeat of the first, with Faith again able to capture a 25-20 victory and place themselves within one win of a match victory. Faith was two kills away from a three game sweep in game four, with the score tied at 24 apiece. It was KCU, though, who finally broke through, capturing two points in a row to grab the 26-24 win. Kentucky then built off that momentum, running up a 25-16 game four win to force game five. The Eagles couldn't seem to get anything going to start that game, and KCU took a lead which they would hold for the comeback 3-2 match win.

The Eagles then faced Providence University College in their second match of the day. This game was more back and forth, with Faith grabbing an early lead only to see Providence come back to win 26-24. Faith found their groove in the second game, jumping up on the Pilots and then cruising to a 25-17 win. Game three was tight, with Faith pulling out the win at 26-24, and again putting themselves within one win of grabbing the match. Providence responded with a strong showing, forcing game five with a 25-16 win. Faith looked like they had the game and match in hand in set five, as they led 13-8. Providence would shock the Eagles though, outscoring them 9-2 to come back an claim a 17-15 win.

Faith headed in to their final pool play game on Saturday knowing they needed a win for a shot at finishing in the top five. The Eagles took control of the match, winning game one 26-24 and game two 25-21 for a 2-0 lead. Again, though, Faith found it a challenge to close out the match, falling 19-25 and 22-25 in games three and four to find themselves in their third straight game five in less than 24 hours.  Faith would finally crack the code to game fives, winning 15-11 to claim a 3-2 match win and place them in the fifth place match.

Hillsdale Free Will Baptist was the opponent in that game, and while Faith fought hard, they simply couldn't find the energy needed to grab the win. Faith opened the match with a 25-23 win, but fell in the next three to finish sixth overall in the tournament.

Faith is off until Thursday, September 10th, when they will travel to Minneapolis, MN, for the annual North Central Regional Tip Off tournament. Faith will face North Central University and Trinity Bible College on day one of the tournament. They will finish out the tourney on Friday with games against Crown College and Providence University College.